8th September 2003

Jeevi review of Idlebrain.com have become a de-facto standard in Telugu film industry over a period of time. Writing a film review in just a couple of hours after watching the morning show of the film on day one is quite a tedious task. One need to balance the mind and the heart to come up with a review that not only influences the visitors to take a decision about whether to watch a film not, but also it balances the commercial success and critic's point of view.

The Nandi awards for the year 2002 testify the Jeevi reviews and Jeevi ratings.

Here are the comments/analysis given by Jeevi in his reviews for the Nandi award winners:

Best Leading Actor: Chiranjeevi (Indra)
Chiranjeevi is known as the greatest dancer of Telugu cinema and his dances have not been so exhilarating in his recent releases. But with Indra, Chiranjeevi is back on the track as the dancing sensation. His facial expressions and agile body movements to accentuate the exciting tunes of Mani and RP are amazing. Chiranjeevi is also known as the mass hero of Telugu cinema. But, the mass angle was amiss in the latest films. In Indra, Chiranjeevi dished out a visual treat with ferocious fights and breathtaking stunts. Chiranjeevi is probably one of those very few stars of Telugu cinema, who can excel in any aspect of acting, be it stunts, dances, emoting or comedy. He has entertained the audience with sensible and clean comedy in Indra. We have not seen Chiranjeevi utter ferocious dialogues and make the villain cringe in fear in a way the frontbencher jumps with joy. Indra is one film where he delivers powerful and reverberating dialogues with élan. To comprehend Chiranjeevi's performance, one might be at loss of words. He is simply the best and Indra once again echoes that fact. full review

Best Leading Actor: Nagarjuna (Santosham)
Nagarjuna is as charming as ever. He suited the role of father and as the man in love perfectly. He wore black and white suits in this film and he looks very dignified in that get up. This role has given him ample scope for exhibiting histrionics and he made maximum use of it to impress upon one and all. full review

Best Leading Actress: Kalyani (Avunu Valliddaru Ista Paddaru)
She is another classic heroine of Vamsy who is beautifully molded in to a lovely character called Swathy. She etches very good impression on the hearts of viewers with her apt histrionics. full review

Best Supporting Actor: Prakash Raj (Nuvve Nuvve)
Prakash Raj gave one of his best performances in the recent times. He gave a very controlled performance in this film. Though the film required him to be an over obsessive father - a role which he has been playing for years - he made sure that the histrionics he has shown for this film do not remind us any of his earlier roles. full review

Best Character Actor: Hari Krishna (Lahiri Lahiri Lahirilo)
Hari Krishna acted like a live wire in this film. He did a cool job in spite of having so many negative points. He is the main hero of the film and he justified it with his performance. full review

Best Villain: Gopichand (Jayam)
Gopi Chand, who acted as villain in this film gave a splendid performance with his controlled emotion. Teja has done a terrific characterization to this role. full review

Best First film for a director: VV Vinayak (Aadi)
For a starter VV Vinayak has done an excellent job as the director. The story of the film is an age-old revenge saga where son comes back to take revenge on the killer (who happens to be an assistant to his father) of his father after a gap of 14 years. But, it's Vinayak imaginative direction and tight screenplay that keeps you glued to your seats. This film is a pucca mass film. But the director made sure that the comedy is rightly blended in the film without losing the balance and seriousness. Vinayak has a bright future ahead for him in the years to come. full review

Best Dialogue writer: Trivikram (Nuvve Nuvve)
Trivikram seems to have reserved his best dialogues for his directorial debut. There are very good one-liners and comedy dialogues in the first half and thought-provoking and heart-touching dialogues in the second half. The film is studded with so many good dialogues that its very difficult to remember them. Here are a few of them I could manage to remember... full review

Tarun to Prakash Raj in the second half: "Nijam prema kante bala mainadi. Naa prema nijamaithe Anjalitho naa pelli jarugutundi."

Chandra Mohan to Tarun - "Sampadinchalenivaadiki Kharchupette arhata ledu. Alaage prema express cheyaleni vaadiki preminche hakku ledu."

Tarun to Prakash Raj - "Tajmahal, charminar, naa lanti kurrollu choodataaniki kaani - konataaniki kaadu."

Tarun to Shriya - "Dabbuto bread konochu kaani aakali konaleru. Bed konochu kaani nidrani konaleru"

Prakash Raj to a marriage broker - "Devudini ammani choodataaniki manamu vellaali kaani, manakosam vallanu teppinchukokoodadu" (about NRI sons who send tickets and arrange visas for their parents to visit them)

Prakash Raj to Chandra Mohan - "Evarainaa Edigina tarvata pelli chesukuntaaru. Kaani nee koduku edagataaniki pelli chesukuntaadu."

Best cinematographer: Jayanan Vincent (Takkari Donga)
The main highlight of the film is extraordinary photography. Jayanan Vincent has done one of his best works for this film. The way camera moves in the few shots and the aerial sequences shot in USA are simply mind-blowing. This film is a real treat for your eyes if you watch on 70mm screen. full review

Best music director: MM Keeravani (Okato Number Kurraadu)
Keeravani has done amazing work as a music director with foot tapping tunes. Plus point of the film is going to be music. But the picturization of the songs needs to be exceptionally good to satiate the people who expected something more on screen after listening to the songs in tape recorder. full review

Best male playback singer: SP Bala Subramanyam (paadanaa tiyyagaa - Vaasu)
Ah! What a climax. This one song is worth the money you shell out for this album. Soaked in pure melody, this song transports you to a different world altogether. No matter how many new singers come into field, SPB still rules the roost. He is the soul of this song. Harris almost rises to the levels of melody mellifluously created by maestro Ilayaraja in 'Priyatama' song of Prema. This song surely is the pick of the album. Pothula Ravi Kiran dishes out very good lyrics. sreya review

Best female playback singer: Usha (chinuku tadiki - Nee Sneham)
More than the tune, it is Sirivennela's lyrics that talk about a dancing girl and her beauty (listen to the song to understand what exactly I mean by beauty) and Usha's equally beautiful rendition that elevate this semi-classical song to a higher rating. Usha dazzles throughout the entire solo pulling it off with poise. People fond of beat based songs or RP's folk songs might not opine with me. sreya review

Best choreographer: Raghavendra Lawrence (Daayi daayi - Indra)
This song is picturized on Chiru and Sonali in picturesque locales in Switzerland. The steps in which Chiranjeevi mocks the Veena-play is instant hit with the theater crowds. Lawrence strikes again with this song. (Song rating 4.5/5). full review

Best fight master: Vijayan (Takkari Donga)
Vijayan has done excellent job in composing fights and action scene. These fights are not loud ones like hero putting ferocious face kicking villains with a fist. All the fights are risky ones, which appears as if they are done so naturally. full review

Special Jury Award: NTR (Aadi)
You are bound to see a new NTR in this film. He trimmed his body a bit and did an extraordinary work as an artist. He carried the entire film on his shoulders. He did all the scenes with the consummate ease. Be it action sequences, romantic teasing scenes or dances! NTR turned out to be an extremely talented actor in comedy scenes. He is too good in those scenes. You can even see him cracking a joke on his shape in this film. full review

Special Jury Award: Mahesh Babu (Takkari Donga)
Mahesh Babu suited the cowboy role very well. All the histrionics of Mahesh Babu are very stylish, yet not loud. In this film too, he proved to be the director's delight when it come to executing his part of scenes the way they have to be done. He took a great risk in few of the action scenes. On the screen, he should be complimented for the subtle, yet perfect, emoting. Off the screen, he must be commended for possessing the kind of GUTS in doing such a role of cowboy. full review

Special Jury Award: Ravi Teja (Khadgam)
This role of actor-wannabe is a tailor made one for Ravi Teja. He did extremely well in the scenes. full review

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